Xeyanitha -- Jeffery

To the Reader: This is the second part of a story, you should read Xeyanitha -- Gisodia first. If you have, then enjoy Jeffery's point of veiw of the story!

We landed with a grinding noise. The whole cabin gave a resounding cheer, finally! We had been on that ship for the longest time. After we had checked the gravity and air, to make sure that we were able to breath, we opened the door. I was the first one to jump off. I landed with a soft thump on the soil. Another cheer went in the air. I knew that we should be quiet but I was too happy. This planet was PERFECT! I thought back to Earth and snorted. What a disgrace! We were out of water and people were dropping off like flys. That's why we needed this place, and it was going to be a piece of cake taking it. It was dark, so I ordered for the lanterns to be lit. They gave off a greenish light. Cari was giving me the eye.
"Shouldn't we NOT tell the whole planet that we are here?" She snarled, she was obviously talking about the light.
"Cari baby!" I said putting my hands on her shoulders, "Quit being such a worry wart!" I patted her on the back and walked toward the ship. We were in no danger, anything on this planet wouldn't have a mind anyways. I went and talked with all of the guys. We were getting a little loud but we all heard the scream that was just outside of our little huddle. Everyone stopped. That's when I saw it. It was and orange color, tinted green by the light. Its body was like ours, only 3 fingers though. And a tail like a kangaroo. It was holding, what must have been a baby. 3 toes. Everyone reacted at the same time. We grabbed it and brought it forward, I took a glance at Cari. She was torn at what to do. Then she looked at me.
"We have to let it go, we can't keep it before we develop the translator." She said worriedly. The creature was going without much of a fight, but then Mark took her baby. Bad idea. It went nuts, thrashing around.
"Give it back!" I shouted. Once it had its baby back it relaxed. I went towards her, my palms up.
"Shhhh, its alright," I said calmly. Obviously it didn't understand me. I tried again. "Human." I said pointing to myself. "Human." I said again, pointing to everyone. It blinked and I straightened up. I should have known, it wouldn't understand me, the stupid thing. I waved it away and walked away, Cari at my heels.
"What are you going to do with it?" She hissed, looking back. I shrugged.
"Let it go when the sun rises." I said simply. When dawn came we let it go, it walked calmy back to a little hut. Hmm I thought, they can make buildings. Maybe I underestimated them a little.
*~*
After a short nap I got everyone together and explained what we needed to do. We needed to make sure that the contact to Earth was still working and repair anything that may have been put loose in our rough landing. I then grabbed Cari and a few other people.
"Okay," I said, rubbing my hands together, "We need to get started on a translator right away." I grinned up at them excitedly, no one returned the enthusiasm. "Well?" I asked, my grin slowly dissapearing, "Are you going to stand around here all day?"
Cari glared. "A translator already? Don't you want to scout out a little? I mean what if these creatures are dangerous?"
I waved her questions away, "Dangerous?" I chuckled, "Please Cari, we've only seen one and it didn't seem exactly....well you get the picture."
Cari shook her head. "Fine! Your the boss in this operation." She walked away and the others followed. I streched my arms over my head and walked around. It felt good to be on real gravity, we had been in space for a while. I walked closer to the hut, and looked in a window from a while away. "Woah!" I said aloud, it was the orange thing talking to a picture on the wall, and the picture was definetely talking back. I looked up and saw some wires leading to the house. "Jeez..." When I looked back the creature on the wall was looking at me, I quickly ran back. I didn't tell anyone what I saw, they'll figure it out. The translator was going well, we had most of it started before, we just needed to adapt it a little. Then communication would begin.
*~*
It didn't take long for us to finsh the translator, its a pretty simple project. I wanted to check it out immediately, again Cari was wary.
"Aren't you taking this a little fast?" She asked
"Cari, the faster we go the more money we make! If we can get this planet within 3 days of landing, just think how quickly we can get everyone to THIS planet...and ruin it!" I gave a laugh but Cari just walked away. "Ugh, Cari, I was joking!" I called after her and was about to follow her when I saw the creature leave its hut. I smiled, time to move in! I called some people together, convenietly leaving out Cari, and told them to go into the house, but to be careful about it. I let slip a little something about some technology, acting like I knew that the whole time. We went in, turned on some lights. Hmmm, even more advanced then I realized. Jason was searching the house when he called out, the things were coming back!
"After them!" I yelled, they can't get away, not when we just finished the translator! Jason was a great runner and grabbed for the creature. I think it was the same one from last night. He just got the things baby, at least that's what I thought it was. I walked towards them with the translator in hand, Jason handed it back its baby. He came over to me.
"Hey, Jeff, I think that this is called a Linsopia." He said, excited.
"A Linsopia?" I looked at him. "I wonder if that is its name or if that's the word for 'baby'?" I shrugged and then turned to it. I pointed to the baby and said, "Linsopia."
It nodded and repeated what I said. I smiled. i started to lift up the translator when the other one kicked me hard in the arm. It dropped to the ground.
"Oh ---!" I said, and shouted many other not-so-nice things at them as they ran away. Wow, that hurt. I gently picked up the translator. Phew, it looked alright. I went towards them, palms up, when I got close enough I pushed the button for English and started to babble. Just to let the translator adapt to the language.
"Hi, my name is Jeff. I like cows and you smell like cabbage. I came through space and I hope this is enough for the translator becuase I'm bored." I snickered and stopped talking. I looked at the message box, "Language Established." was flashing. Yes! I held it out and pushed the other button as they started to talk. It was weird how they talked. It sounded like they used alot of tounge, and alot of 'gul-up-ing'. The Message board was just flashing "Processing" and then it changed to "Language Established".
*~*
I lifted it up to my mouth and spoke.
"Can you understand me?" I asked and from the way they reacted they did. I held out the translator as they talked with eachother, shocked. This is great! I thought, couldn't get any better. I put my lips to the speaker, explaining that it was a "translator", our fabulous human technology. I smirked. They were still confused and I was bored. So I was just blunt.
"Listen, my name is Jeffery, I need to talk to your leader." My mind flashed back to all of the alien movies that were ever made on Earth, all of them having the line "Take me to your Leader" I felt like I was in a cheesy bad movie. I came back to present time when I heard them say "Pedloria." Excited, I cut into their conversation.
"Perloria! Is that your president?" I asked, giddy.
"Pedloria is our king," The one called Gisodia said, "But what are you doing here? Where did you come from?"
I waved the questions aside, no need to answer those now, I need to talk with this Pedloria, no more wasting time with these...things. Gisodia looked torn between the choices and then said it would take me to its king.
I grinned, "Lead the way!"
*~*
They took me to a wall in the hut. When they pushed a little button I made the comment that I was surprised they were this advanced. I got a very nasty glare from both of them. Whoops, I suppose that would be insulting. Oh well. I smirked and got out of the veiw screen as the "king" came on. I didn't both to translate what they were discussing, but I could tell Gisodia was flustered, and that the king and queen were bored. I turned on the translator when I saw the faces of the royalty go red with anger.
"Gisodia!!! Pranks like this are NOT accepted!" the queen spat out, eyes red with fury. "I cannot believe that a citizen would lay such a prank! Pedloria, we are leaving now, I'm calling the authorities, this type of behavior is not accepted in Xeyanitha!" She continued. Xeyanitha? Hmm, that must be what the country is called or something. As the queen turned away from the screen, I stepping out in front and spoke up.
"I wouldn't leave if I were you Queen." I said cockily. When she turned around, the expressions changed faster than I thought possible. From red with anger, to ghost white with fear. Hm, kinda cool to think we scare someone. I listened to them discuss, Gisodia claiming me as the leader of the humans. At least she had some sense. I interrupted them with "We need to talk to you Julocus, Pedloria. We have some things to discuss."
"Yes," Julocus said, "Yes. Gisodia? Where did you say you lived again?"
While Gisodia filled them in with her location, all I could think of was how perfectly this was working out. In no time the humans would be off to a brand new start.
The King and Queen said they would be over soon, but it would take a little bit. Great, I thought, time to kill!
"Hey, feel like talking Gisodia?" I said conversationally, might as well chubby up to the lesser people I might get some useful information. She was fine with it so long as Hodiso was there. I shrugged, It didn't matter he didn't look like he was going to be very talkative anyways, I could see his eyes shift back and forth warily. Did he really think we were going to attack him? I laughed silently to myself and led them over to our ship.
THAT would come later.
*~*
I started out by talking about Earth and Humans, Gisodia was listening really well, aparently completely absorbed. I really got into it, explaining all about our water and air, all of the different animals. I smiled telling how great Earth was, but then a scowl passed over my face.
"It WAS beautiful." I said bitterly. Gisodia widened her eyes in surprise.
"What do you mean?" She asked. and I launched into the whole pollution and global warming story. About starvation. It wasn't until I gave a detailed description of what was left of our fresh water lakes that I realized who I was talking to. I could have kicked myself. What are you doing?! I screamed to myself. Your trying to GET them to go to Earth! Not disgust them! I saw a small look of horror on her face and I knew that I just let the cat out of the bag. The cat and all 193 kittens. I shook my head, trying to blabber my way out of it. I just shoved a bunch of long words in her face and then started talking about living underwater. It didn't take long for her to become absorbed in that too. I sighed silently, THAT was close. Oh well, she'll probably forget anyways, I mean how good can their memory be? I quickly got her talking about her planet, feeling more secure now that she had something to think about other than what I told her. From what she said, Xeyanitha was the perfect planet.
"Almost like a whole new Earth wouldn't you say?" I said causually, a smile creeping up my face. She agreed. It wasn't long after that that Pedloria and Julocus showed up. Gisodia bowed quickly then left. Alright, I said to myself shooting a cocky smile at Cari as she stepped up, she was going to be part of the persuation process. She just rolled her eyes, not smiling. Apparently trying to be business-like, but I could see the excitement in her eyes, and the worry in the Xeyanithans. This planet was ours.
*~*
Cari and I chatted for a little bit, commenting on the gracious kindness that they have shown us and complimenting the queen on her lucious fur. Sucking up basically. But I got tired of it, so just before Cari was going to explain the rules of Golf, I butted it.
"Pedloria? Julocus? We asked you here for a certain reason." I ignored the icy glare that was coming from Cari and kept my eyes on the king and queen. Julocus looked warily at me. Fabulous.
"Yes?" She said, I cleared my throat. "I'm going to be blunt." I warned, Cari looked shocked, but by the time she opened her mouth, I had already said it.
"We want Xeyanitha."
They were stunned. Cari was fuming. She pulled me roughly and put her lips to my ear. "What the HELL do you think your doing?" She hissed, I pulled away from her and smiled sweetly at the King and Queen, holding up my finger for "just a second". They looked up. I sighed and pushed the translator button. "Just a moment." I said quickly and turned back to Cari.
"You know you don't have to whisper." I reminded her, speaking normally, "They can't understand us." She didn't respond, just shook her head furiously. "WHY did you say it like that?! That is NOT what we had planned Jeff!" She was about to blow, I could tell. "We don't want this to be a WAR!" She hollared, I looked over at Pedloria and Julocus. They were shocked. I quickly smoothed it over telling them that Cari had a few mental problems and that yelling was a way to calm her down. Cari wasn't happy with that either. I laughed and patted her on the arm.
"Cari, listen! We have these guys, 100 percent! Just listen to what I say, and I swear that I can convince them. They will be begging US for Earth!" She backed down, "Well, I do have to hand that to you, you are one smooth talker." I started to laugh, "Got that right!" Turning back to the Xeyanithans. I talked myself out of that and started talking about Earth. I let the good old American Ego slip out and bragged about how great was. I told them about the abundant water supply, true but I left out the fact that you couldn't drink any of it. I explained that there was lots and lots of food, also true....that is if all you eat is grass. Weather is good, nice and warm in some parts, cooler in others, I left out the fact that it gets hotter each year with global warming. I said that we didn't even want to leave, that the only reason we were here was because we were overpopulated. We ran out of room on Earth, and that's there all too it. That's completely true, except for not wanting to leave, we can't wait.
"We love it there! But the fact remains, no more room. That's why we came to you. Your planet is almost double ours." Now that? That was a lie. It wasn't double ours, it was just slightly larger. I could tell that they weren't especially moved by my sob story, but that's ok I still had 2 zingers up my sleeve. Zinger 1 --
"There IS something in this for you. You see when you take Earth you will be gaining alot of our technology. I mean alot. You will be able to fly in space, and much much more." Now, I could see that I had their interest. Time for Zinger 2 --
"Your not the first planet that we have talked with. There are about 4 other planets that are willing to trade with us, but we want yours because of its size." Funny, I didn't feel ANY guilt for blatently lying through my teeth. I shot a glance at Cari, she looked stunned about that, guilty even. I wasn't worried, she would be thanking me later.
*~*
I slept in late that morning, I think I deserved it. I finally crawled out of bed and walked around the ship, dancing and singing. I knew I was being a jerk. But, like I said, after what I did, I had the right. I walked up behind Cari and pinched her butt. She turned around with a gasp and I planted a kiss on her lips. I grinned and put on a southern accent, "Howdy there Cowgirl." I said with a slur and a smirk. She wasn't smiling.
"You really think your something don't you?" She said, eyes flashing.
I laughed, "You bet! Oh by the way, you don't have to thank me now, you can wait until later."
A look of disgust passed over her face. "Thanks for what? You and your stupid ego has formally ruined all chances of a peaceful transition!"
My smile was faltering. What was wrong with her? I just handed her Xeyanitha on a silver platter, pre-payed and all. And she sends it back to the cook saying it wasn't done enough?!
"What are you talking about? You saw how interested they were in the deal! Anyone in their right minds would accept that."
She snorted. "You really believe that? Please Jeff! No speices would ever TRADE PLANETS. Not for some lousy technology that they are OBVIOUSLY capable of!" She shouted, positively spitting with rage. "Did you completely forget the plan?"
I sighed, "Convincing them to share the planet with us? How lame is that! You wouldn't rather have the whole thing?"
She looked steelily up at me. "Jeff. Don't you understand that now we don't have a chance to have even HALF of it without --" She faltered, blinking rapidly. I was stunned. Cari getting teary? Not a thing you see everyday. I looked around quickly. Damn! No one had a camera. By the time I looked back Cari was back to herself. Oh well, it will always be a cherished memory. "War." She finished off just as I heard a anger voice yelling my name from outside. I quick ran out there and saw none other than Gisodia standing there, trembling with rage. Jeez, two females mad me in one day? Hm, I better work on my smooth talking with my blow-up-date. I laughed aloud, god am I funny! I smiled again when Gisodia started talking in her gibberish language, I picked up the translator, and handed it smoothly over to her.
"How in the world could you say something like
that?!" She shouted, I played dumb.
"Say what?" I said, with a gee-am-I-confused face on.
"You know VERY WELL what I mean!" She hollared, the translator squealed and she quieted down. "You offered that trade, and you didn't say a thing about pollution?!"
"I offered the trade yes, I'm sure that I mentioned the condition of Earth though..." I said with a smirk, she wasn't buying it. Not that I expected her to though. The light of fury coming from her eyes could have burned a hole through my clothes. Good thing she was looking at my face! She pulled the translator way from her face and let out a string of what was obviously swear words. I was stunned, I wasn't exactly expecting that from little ol' Gisodia.
"You think your really something else don't you? You big high and mighty humans who can fly through space can do whatever they want right? Wrong!!!" She said, glaring. "You can't just come onto Xeyanitha and say, 'Hmm...I like this place, bye everyone who lives here!' this is our planet and we are taking good care of it, go back to your Earth." She stormed off. But not it was me that was mad. I wasn't going to get walked off on two times in a day, especially someone who wasn't even in my speices. I ran up next to her with the translator and held it too my lips. I held her gaze with stony eyes, unblinking. The I said slowly into the speaker. "Want to know what? I CAN say that 'I like this place, its mine.' and you can watch me do it."
*~*
I was in the ship, fuming and pacing after that. I wasn't cracking and jokes anymore, or talking big, I was just MAD. Anyone who came near me I snapped at. Who did Gisodia thinks she was? Yelling at me like that, and Cari too! I knew what I was doing! I sat down on a little chair and combed my fingers through my hair, then resting my head in my palms. I closed my eyes and took a couple of breaths. Cari is just overreacting, its not going to amount to war, we threaten anything like that and this little wimpy Xeyanithans will fold in seconds flat. As for Gisodialet her go sulk in her hut thingy, what is she going to do? I gave a small snort of laughter as I imagined that orange furred creature carrying a bazooka and blowing us all into smitherings, with her little baby no less! I laughed aloud and rubbed my eyes. It'll all work out, so what if Cari is a pessimist, she can go think of everything bad, I'll just stick with the plan! I got up and went to go talk with some of the guys, as I passed a window I saw Gisodia storming out. "Oh god, NOW what does she want?" I peeked my head out as she yelled, "JEFF!!!!!! OFFER REJECTED!!!!!" My jaw dropped. I saw a little smirk on her face and then she walked away, but I couldn't move I was stunned. How did she learn to say that? I felt a tap on my shoulder and a slightly pleased looking Cari standing there with hands on hips.
"Still think that they are as stupid as they look?"
*~*
I contacted Earth almost immediately after that. Cari happened to walk in when I was telling them how many troops to send. She wasn't happy to say the least. After I cut the connection she grabbed my arm and hissed "What the hell are you doing?" in my ear. I pryed her fingers off my arm and looked her straight in the eye. "Bringing in the troops, what else?" I said, "They'll be here tonight." She looked shocked. "TONIGHT? But, that means...." she looked at me, her eyes showed pain. "Yup, I called an emergency operation, we need to get them here as fast as possible."
"But, we haven't even talked with the king and queen!" She said rapidly. I shook my head.
"Didn't you hear Gisodia Cari? They rejected, there's no more negotiating. Its either we take this place over by force or we leave, and you know we can't leave." I smiled and patted her shoulder. "Don't worry though C, they'll fold once they see the army coming in, we won't have to fire a single shot!"
*~*
It was dark, cold and raining when the ship holding our troops came in. In landed with a rumbling and scratching, like a huge dark cloud. But it was anything but dark when the hatch was opened. The men, and women, flowed out laughing and cheering. I quick found the captian and shook his hand, discussing what was going on etc. I was just telling him about the king and queen when I heard the shout of "Alien!" and a couple shouts. "Crap," I muttered and jogged out to the group of people. One of the men was about to grab a wet and ragged looked Xeyanithan. "Stop," I said to the man and had them all back away. "Yes?" I said to Gisodia, trying hard not to smirk. She grabbed the translator from my hand.
"What's going on?" I put on an innocent face,
"What do you mean?" I heard the laughter of the group behind me, maybe I should change my career to a stand-up comedian!
"Why are their more humans? We rejected the offer!" She said, I almost laughed aloud.
"I know you refused the offer, I heard you. Any other questions?" She stamped her foot,
"Come on Jeff!"
"Where are we going, can I drive?" I cracked and the people behind howled with laughter. The rain came down on Gisodia, making her look like a miserable orange blob. She sighed.
"Jeff, fine I'm sorry about what I said earlier, just tell me what's going on!" She looked directly into my eyes. I blinked, and she left. I walked back to the captain and kept talking, but all I could think of was the hurt and scared look in Gisodia's eyes.
*~*
Things moved swiftly from then on. I didn't have time to think about Gisodia, and the fate of her people. I trudged along on the soppy ground, heading over to our ship.
"Damn, where is he?" I turned swiftly and almost fell over Cari. She stood there with her small frame stooped against the rain, but she looked up at me defiently. She opened her mouth to say something but I cut her off.
"Look Cari, I know. You don't need to bite my head off and make me feel worse."
She looked a little shocked that I admitted it. I brushed past her and started to walk off but she wasn't going to let me go.
"So you've finally taken the blame? Or has it just sunken in and your still denying that its all your fault?"
I stopped and whirled around, she stopped short to stop from running into me. My eyes where slits, and my hands were balled into fists.
"Do you have a hearing problem Cari? I KNOW FOR CHRISTS SAKE. So just lay off, there is nothing I can do about it now."
I walked off and worked non-stop, not letting and thoughts of Gisodia, or Cari, enter my mind. It wasn't until the suns rose that I realized how late it was. I sat down and watched the two blood-red balls raise into the sky. I looked over at Gisodia's hut and saw her coming out. I went over to her, partly because I didn't want her to see what I had been working on before I stopped for the break. The army training. When I got close enough I said straight out,
"What do you want?" No time for subtlity, who knows when the next ship was going to arrive.
"Peace." She said simply, I was taken aback, it wasn't the answer I was expecting. But I didn't let it show and bluntly told her the truth.
"Well, we aren't going to have it so get over it."
"Why not Jeff? Why war?" Was her responce. I was taken aback, wow she had put two and two together fast. They really aren't as dumb as I had first thought.
"War? What makes you think that?" I said lamely, why did I even bother covering it up?
"We may not have the best technology, alien, but we aren't stupid." She said, it stung slightly with the word alien, I flashed back to all of the movies that were created about aliens taking over earth, yet the humans always won with their will-power. Seems ironic know that we would be the aliens, only it seemed like the Xeyanithans would need a lot more than will-power to win against us. A gulit swept over me but I straightened me shoulders and looker her defiently in the eyes.
"Well, the sooner you know accept the truth the sooner you can get over it."
"Does war have to be the way?" She pleaded with me. She wasn't holding out any false hope of the Xeyanithans winning, she knew they didn't stand and chance. It hurt me to say the word, but I had to tell her the truth.
"Yes."
Tears filled her eyes, and she looked down at her baby Linsopia in her tail with saddness. She choked out a "Fine" and made to turn, but before she did she said a whispered, "Good-bye Jeff."
She handed me the translator and walked back to her hut, I knew that was our final good-bye.
*~*
The next few days I went through all of my actions and orders without any feeling. Although at night the only thing I could think of was the way Gisodia looked at her baby, guilt stung at my heart when I thought of how that baby would grow up, if he ever did at all. People tryed going to Gisodia's house, she never answered the door. They assumed that she had left, but I knew she was there. I never went over there, I knew it would be useless. It didn't take long for the army to be trained and ready, along with all the plans set. One night, the tnesion was in the air and no guns were fired. Everyone was just roaming around listlessly, tomorrow would be the day that it all started.
*~*
Early the next day, when the suns rose, the troops lined up. We weren't really fighting like this of course, it was more like a warning to alert the Xeyanthian world that it was really starting. Cari refused to talk with me. I was between the troops ready to give the order to start the march when Gisodia walked out. She stepped out in front of the line, I could see the tears matting her delicate orange fur. I held the translator to me lips,
"Gisodia. Move." The translator was strachy so it couldn't be heard that my voice had caught in her name. She shook her head. I was about to move and move her out of the way myself, when a shot rang out. A cry fell out of my lips when I saw the purple blood flow out of her stomach. Her eyes caught mine.
"Nuyin n Felos" She gasped out, then her tail fell out under her, and she went falling to the ground.
*~*
"NO!" I cryed out and ran over to her limp body. I didn't need to touch her to know. I turned around quickly with fury in my eyes.
"Who the hell fired that shot?!?" I had just started my ranting and raving when a man stepped out of the line and said defiently,
"I did."
I stopped and looked at him, shocked. He looked perfectly pleased with himself. I grabbed at the gun of a soulder nearby and was about to shoot the man to the ground when I heard Cari yell out,
"Jeffery, STOP NOW!" She ran over and ripped the gun from my hand. She stepped in front of me and looked straight into my eyes. It wasn't until then that I noticed the tears streaming down my face. I turned and picked up Gisodia and walked back to the ship, passing a Xeyanthian who was holding a wailing Linsopia in his arms. My heart wrenched when I saw the orphaned baby and ran to the ship.
*~*
Three Years Later
It took only three years for the humans to completely take over Xeyanthia. All of the Xeyanthians were forced to a remote corner of the world, and humans fly in everyday to move onto the new, unpolluted land. This was now a human world, you barely ever saw a Xeyanthian. If you did they were in rebel ground still fighting. The humans refused to let them live among us, and it burned me up. Ever since that day, when Gisodia died, I had turned into a Cari. The peace loving, 'everyone-live-together', person. I wish I had made the transition sooner. Everyday I thought about Gisodia, and how she died. I replayed how she died everyday, but everynight I was tortured because I couldn't remember the final words that she had uttered to me. It wasn't until three years later of the day that I woke in the middle of the night.
"Nuyin n Felos." I said aloud. "Nuyin n Felos!" I exclaimed, the sound of the words sending a sense of relief through my whole body and a weight off of my shoulders. I jumped out of the bed and ran down the hall, tripping over things and stubbing my toes. I finally made it to the back room, the room I vowed never to go into again. It contained everything from...then. All of the plans, my possesions that I had had on the ship.
And the translator.
I shakily picked it up and dusted off the speaker. I pushed the button on the side and waited for the crackling to come through. I slowed relayed "Nuyin n Felos" into the speaker, and just as slowly the translation came out.

Live in Peace.